My Shelf of Favorite Books

about
Contents and history of my shelf of favorite books since 2003.
Author

Stephen J. Mildenhall

Published

2024-02-13

These books have shaped my perspective. I frequently recommend or revisit them. I enjoyed reading or writing them or found them thought-provoking. The only constraint is they must all fit on one shelf, favoring shorter books.

2023-

  1. *Birkhoff and MacLane, Survey of Modern Algebra
  2. Artin, Galois Theory
  3. Milnor, Topology from the differentiable point of view
  4. Oxtoby, Measure and Category
  5. Gnedenko and Kolmogorov, Limit distributions for sums of independent random variables
  6. Kolmogorov, Foundations of the theory of probability
  7. Chandrasekharan, Elliptic Functions
  8. Cox, Primes of the form x2 + ny2
  9. SIAM 100 Digit Challenge
  10. *Feller, An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications, vol II
  11. Jorgensen, The theory of dispersion models
  12. McCullagh and Nelder, Generalized linear models
  13. Barro, Determinants of economic growth
  14. Stigler, The seven pillars of statistical wisdom
  15. Rosenzweig, The Halo Effect
  16. *Terkel, Working
  17. *Keynes, The General Theory
  18. *Hayek, The Fatal Conceit
  19. Deaton, The Great Escape
  20. Baumol, The cost disease
  21. Graeber, Debt the First 5000 Years
  22. Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow
  23. Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow
  24. Cain, Quiet
  25. Hofstadter, Godel, Escher and Bach
  26. Kernighan & Ritchie, The C Programming Language
  27. *Feynman, QED
  28. *Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb
  29. Kuhn, The structure of scientific revolutions
  30. Amis, Time’s Arrow
  31. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
  32. Woolf, To the Lighthouse
  33. *McEwan, Atonement
  34. *Joyce, Ulysses
  35. Mildenhall and Major, Pricing insurance risk
  36. Mildenhall, GLM article
  37. Scotch book
  38. Frankfurt, On Bullshit
  39. Observer’s Cars

Books with * have been on the shelf since it started in 2003.

Dropped from initial list in 2023

  • Conway and Sloane, Sphere Packings, Lattices and Groups
  • Cornell, Silverman and Stevens, Modular Forms and Fermat’s Last Theorem
  • Perec, Life a User’s Manual
  • Lodge, Nice Work

Near misses

  • Eliot, Complete poems and plays
  • Weinberg, The first three minutes
  • Feynman, Joking and Red Books

I read Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel on Kindle; as a book it would be on the shelf, probably replacing Hayek.

2019-2023

  1. *Birkhoff and MacLane, Survey of Modern Algebra
  2. Cain, Quiet
  3. Chandrasekharan, Elliptic Functions
  4. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
  5. *Conway and Sloane, Sphere Packings, Lattices and Groups
  6. *Cornell, Silverman and Stevens, Modular Forms and Fermat’s Last Theorem
  7. Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow
  8. Deaton, The Great Escape
  9. *Feller, An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications, vol II
  10. *Feynman, QED
  11. Frankfurt, On Bullshit
  12. Graeber, Debt the First 5000 Years
  13. *Hayek, The Fatal Conceit
  14. Hofstadter, Godel, Escher and Bach
  15. *Joyce, Ulysses
  16. Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow
  17. *Keynes, The General Theory
  18. Kernighan & Ritchie, The C Programming Language
  19. *McEwan, Atonement
  20. *Perec, Life a User’s Manual
  21. *Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb
  22. Rosenzweig, The Halo Effect
  23. SIAM 100 Digit Challenge
  24. *Terkel, Working
  25. Woolf, To the Lighthouse
  26. Scotch book
  27. Photos I
  28. Photos II
  29. Observer’s Cars
  30. Observer’s Airplanes

2016-2019

The shelf got slightly wider in 2016!

  1. *Artin, Galois Theory
  2. Barro, Determinants of Economic Growth
  3. Baumol, The Cost Disease
  4. *Birkhoff and MacLane, Survey of Modern Algebra
  5. Boyd, armadillo
  6. Cain, Quiet
  7. Chandrasekharan, Elliptic Functions
  8. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
  9. *Conway and Sloane, Sphere Packings, Lattices and Groups
  10. *Cornell, Silverman and Stevens, Modular Forms and Fermat’s Last Theorem
  11. Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow
  12. Deaton, The Great Escape
  13. *Feller, An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications, vol II
  14. *Feynman, QED
  15. Frankfurt, On Bullshit
  16. Graeber, Debt the First 5000 Years
  17. *Hayek, The Fatal Conceit
  18. Hofstadter, Godel, Escher and Bach
  19. *Joyce, Ulysses
  20. Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow
  21. *Keynes, The General Theory
  22. Kernighan & Ritchie, The C Programming Language
  23. *McEwan, Atonement
  24. *Perec, Life a User’s Manual
  25. *Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb
  26. Rosenzweig, The Halo Effect
  27. SIAM 100 Digit Challenge
  28. *Terkel, Working
  29. Woolf, To the Lighthouse
  30. Scotch book
  31. Photos I
  32. Photos II
  33. Observer’s Cars
  34. Observer’s Airplanes

2013-2016

  1. *Ahlfors, Complex Analysis
  2. Artin, Galois Theory
  3. *Birkhoff and MacLane, Survey of Modern Algebra
  4. *Borwein and Borwein, Pi and the AGM
  5. Chandrasekharan, Elliptic Functions
  6. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
  7. *Conway and Sloane, Sphere Packings, Lattices and Groups
  8. *Cornell, Silverman and Stevens, Modular Forms and Fermat’s Last Theorem
  9. *Cox, Primes of the Form x^2 + ny^2
  10. *Feynman, QED
  11. *Feynman, Surely You Are Joking Mr. Feynman
  12. *McEwan, Atonement
  13. *Godement, Algebra
  14. *Hayek, The Fatal Conceit
  15. Hofstadter, Godel, Escher and Bach
  16. *Joyce, Ulysses
  17. *Karatzas and Shreve, Brownian Motion and Stochastic Calculus
  18. *Keynes, The General Theory
  19. *McCullagh and Nelder, Generalized Linear Models
  20. Milnor, Topology from a Differentiable Point of View
  21. Penrose, The Emperor’s New Mind
  22. *Perec, Life a User’s Manual
  23. *Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb
  24. *Silverman, The Arithmetic of Elliptic Curves
  25. *Terkel, Working
  26. Wagon, The Banach Tarski Paradox
  27. Woolf, To the Lighthouse
  28. Scotch book

2003-2013

Approximately true, but not constant over this time. E.g., read the Fatal Conceit in 2009

  1. Ahlfors, Complex Analysis
  2. Amis, London Fields
  3. Birkhoff and MacLane, Survey of Modern Algebra
  4. Borwein and Borwein, Pi and the AGM
  5. Conway and Sloane, Sphere Packings, Lattices and Groups
  6. Cornell, Silverman and Stevens, Modular Forms and Fermat’s Last Theorem
  7. Cox, Primes of the Form x^2 + ny^2
  8. Feller, An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications, vol I
  9. Feller, An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications, vol II
  10. Feynman, QED
  11. Feynman, Surely You Are Joking Mr. Feynman
  12. McEwan, Atonement
  13. Godement, Algebra
  14. Hayek, The Fatal Conceit
  15. Joyce, Ulysses
  16. Karatzas and Shreve, Brownian Motion and Stochastic Calculus
  17. Keynes, The General Theory
  18. Lahri, Interpreter of the Maladies
  19. Lodge, Nice Work
  20. McCullagh and Nelder, Generalized Linear Models
  21. Nicholson, Everything and More
  22. Perec, Life a User’s Manual
  23. Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb
  24. Silverman, The Arithmetic of Elliptic Curves
  25. Terkel, Working
  26. Scotch book

See also Evernote page